To make all of that happen, entire episodes--in this case illegally hosted ones on YouTube--get crunched through VideoSurf's servers. It's an entirely automated process that scans videos faster than real-time, and does not require people to do the heavy lifting.

VideoSurf breaks down TV episodes, or any video for that matter, into character scenes.
VideoSurf

What makes the technology special is that it picks out characters from these series and lets you see individual moments where they appear. The same thing happens when you're viewing any episode through the service--it'll pick out who it recognizes and put up a character list next to the clip.

If a friend sends you a clip from the service it will start and end at the exact timeline they select. When you're prepping a clip yourself, you can also scrub to the spot you want and e-mail it to them without leaving the page.

Ideally this technology could be licensed elsewhere. Considering it can figure out who people are in both moving videos and still frames, having this on something like Facebook would mean your photos and videos would automatically be tagged. This would be especially cool for recognizing both your friends and others on the service that you might not necessarily know.

The service is currently in private beta but accepting sign-ups Wednesday.

About the author

Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.
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